Almost everyone knows that June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, but few know it also represents Caribbean American Heritage as well. The United States has always had a tight-knit relationship with Caribbean Islanders, from important names like Alexander Hamilton, Celia Cruz, and Bob Marley, engraining Caribbean Culture into American society.
Yet only recently was Caribbean American Heritage Month first celebrated, as recent as in June of 2000 by the Institute for Caribbean Studies and becoming officially legislated in 2006 under the Administration of George W. Bush. Today, I want to shed more light on the importance of Caribbean Territories and Countries through the literary lens and celebrate the impact they have had on the society we all live in.
Like many truths to be told about New World Colonialism, the Caribbean suffered some of the harshest hardships in the Slave Trade. Most of the earliest records about Caribbean Islands are told from the perspective of slavers and their enslaved, Verene Shepard’s “Working Slavery, Pricing Freedom,” is a collection of short stories and essays from all perspectives, spanning islands and time periods to reveal the hard truths of early Caribbean history. People from around the world were rehomed to the Caribbean, from South and East Asia to the stretches of Africa, the islands were injected with diversity.
The Caribbean Culture is rich with diversity from tradition and religion to ethnicity and identity, brought from the influence of almost every continent, this is excellently explained in “Nation Dance” by Patrick Taylor. Taylor explores the vast expanses of each Caribbean Island Nation and the origins of the people and cultures that live there today, attempting to explain the diverse religions and cultural identities with sensitivity and curiosity. Many people’s first thought when they think about the Caribbean is the rich musical and rhythmic history that came from the region, Dave Thompson explores this masterful artistry in “Reggae and Caribbean Music.”
But the Caribbean isn’t only known for its successes in the musical world, but also the world of athletics, even more-so, baseball. “Raceball” by Rob Ruck is a culmination of famous stories about the world of Black and Latin ballplayers, exploring the tales of Jackie Robinson and the impact people of Caribbean descent on the modern sport.
In recent history, especially with the rapid effects of Global Climate Change, the Caribbean is most commonly found in the news for the intense severity of natural disasters that grasp and threaten the Caribbean Islands. June Carolyn Erlick details these devastating tales of tropical storms and earthquakes that wreak havoc on these archipelagos, attempting to bring awareness to the control of nature in “Natural Disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean.” A new book in the library is “AID State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti” by Jake Johnston, where the story of Haiti’s repeating disasters has created one of the largest crisis states in the Western World, effectively making a dystopian novel come to reality.
Despite the hardships faced by Caribbean persons across the sea, there are still fascinating stories and artforms to be expressed by the troubled people living in these conditions. “Land of Many Colors and Nanna-Ya” by Maryse Condé is a book containing two fascinating novellas that tell two very different and unique tales, one from a French colony spreading across four generations and the other a love story in Jamaica, but both an explorative deep dive of race and gender. But even more stories can be explored in Ramabai Espinet’s collection of poetic pieces told by women who suffer from discrimination by other Caribbean communities, as well as life in the United States in “Creation Fire: A CAFRA Anthology of Caribbean Women’s Poetry.”
Speaking more of U.S. influence in specific, it is important to remember the two American Territories that exist in the Caribbean. Most people know about the U.S. owned island of Puerto Rico and recognize it as the most notable American connection to the Latin and Hispanic world. A well-known and personal beloved book is “Ordinary Girls” by Jaquira Díaz, a memoir about being stuck at the crossroads of so many identities, from being queer to being a Latina living in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Díaz’s story is a lyrical masterpiece.
Don’t forget that Puerto Rico is not the only U.S. Territory in the Caribbean, many often don’t know about about the U.S. Virgin Islands, the setting of Kheryn Callender’s “Hurricane Child,” another beautiful, yet devastating novel about living through one of the previously mentioned disasters often experienced by Caribbean Islanders. And of course, I could not finish talking about the Caribbean without mentioning the tales of piracy explored in another young adult book, “The Whydah: A Pirate Ship Feared, Wrecked, and Found” by Martin Sandler.
But if there was one book I would recommend the most, it would have to be another newer book in our collection, “River Sing Me Home” by Eleanor Shearer. In this historical fiction, Shearer take the reader across the Caribbean through the main character, Rachel, an escaped slave from Barbados attempting to find her five missing children. This novel is an absolute masterpiece and something I would recommend to anyone looking for an immersive dive into the early exploration of the Colonial Caribbean. I hope that you have learned a little something about our neighbors to the south and gained some appreciation for the rich cultures that can be found there and that have shaped the world today, Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month!
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